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California Rep Duncan Hunter and Wife Indicted for Misuse of Campaign Funds

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posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:20 PM
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Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife indicted in use of campaign funds for personal expenses


Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret, were indicted Tuesday on charges related to the misuse of $250,000 worth of campaign funds for personal expenses and the filing of false campaign finance records.

The charges of wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations and conspiracy were the culmination of a Department of Justice investigation that has stretched for more than a year, during which the Republican congressman from California has maintained his innocence.


So apparently some $250k worth of personal expenditures were made on by Hunter and his wife, Margaret, who was also his campaign manager.


Hundreds of thousands of dollars in unusual charges on Hunter's campaign credit card had come under scrutiny, including among other things, an Italian vacation, dental work, purchases at a surf shop, and huge tabs at bars in restaurants in the San Diego and Washington, DC, areas. Among the most mocked charges was airfare for a pet rabbit to fly with the family, which an aide said was mistakenly charged to the wrong credit card.

Hunter, a former Marine, has reimbursed his campaign account some $65,000 since the Federal Election Commission first questioned spending on video games in 2016, according to FEC records.

"There was wrong campaign spending, but it was not done by me," Hunter told KGTV-10, a San Diego television station, earlier this year.
His comments have cast blame on his wife and former campaign manager, Margaret Hunter, who also made charges on the campaign credit card.

Hunter's lawyers said last year that "any mistakes were made they were strictly inadvertent and unintentional."


So... somebody charged to the wrong card continuously to pay for $250k worth of stuff including a vacation to Italy? Sounds legit. I mean, I often buy $250k worth of stuff and then never wonder why I'm not getting a bill for any of it.

ETA:

Looking at the indictment, sure doesn't sound good for any sort of plausible deniability:


edit on 2018-8-21 by theantediluvian because: (no reason given)


+3 more 
posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:23 PM
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a reply to: theantediluvian

Hehehe.

Yeah, I mean maybe you could believe the excuse if it was a one time charge for a small amount of money.

But a quarter million?

I hope if guilty (which seems likely) these two get the book thrown at them.

I feel like this stuff happens all of the time, and I wish more people would get charged with it.



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:25 PM
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Tisk Tisk!!

I'm fairly confident most politicians could be indicted for something or another involving cashmoney. It's R's, it's D's.

It's also dependent on whom investigators want to target ... which has now become part of politics in the US -- some politicians are 'untouchable' I guess.
edit on 2526x6725America/ChicagovAmerica/Chicago8 by six67seven because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:26 PM
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Yeah, maybe they should have created a "foundation" first, then
they could have hid the transactions as donations to themselves,
or something perversely crooked like that.

And if they are not registered as a foundation, it gets even
better then all the transactions just get old, and years later
they could say "oh look, we need to register the foundation
with the state"



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:28 PM
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Criminals are the only people with enough time to run for office. Hard to be surprised by them stealing money.



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:33 PM
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It's appearing more and more like campaigns and campaign funding are giant rackets.



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:34 PM
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"There was wrong campaign spending, but it was not done by me," Hunter told KGTV-10, a San Diego television station, earlier this year. His comments have cast blame on his wife and former campaign manager, Margaret Hunter, who also made charges on the campaign credit card.


What a douche-noozle. At least he could cop to it...nah, he’s cut from the same cloth as a Roger Clemens-type and tossed his old lady under the bus. What a marine.
edit on 21-8-2018 by BeefNoMeat because: a



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:36 PM
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I just knewwwwww it wasnt a Democrat.

Hacketty hack hack



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:38 PM
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You know, I posted a while back about how Republicans' pervasive fraud may be evidence that capitalism is failing.

Seriously, if congresspeople can't afford to live without stealing what chance do we have?



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:39 PM
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a reply to: CB328

You could cut down a redwood with that hatchet
edit on 21-8-2018 by toysforadults because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:40 PM
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originally posted by: Grambler
a reply to: theantediluvian

I feel like this stuff happens all of the time, and I wish more people would get charged with it.



Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. spent a few years in jail for using campaign money to make personal purchases. Interestingly, it didn't surprise many people in Chicago when he was indicted for it.



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:40 PM
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a reply to: Grambler


Yeah, I mean maybe you could believe the excuse if it was a one time charge for a small amount of money.


I just updated the OP with an excerpt from the indictment. Apparently they overdrafted their bank account an average of about 160 times a year from 2009-2016, incurring over $37k in overdraft fees. That's impressive.


I feel like this stuff happens all of the time, and I wish more people would get charged with it.


I'm sure there's a lot more similar crime by members of Congress that isn't being punished but this is absurdly blatant. They didn't even get creative, maybe hire a family member/friend and grossly overpay for a kickback or setup a fake vendor or similar front. How hard could it be to setup a fake t-shirt printing company and invoice for t-shirts that were never made or something like that?

As if the corruption wasn't bad enough, these two were dumb and lazy.



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:41 PM
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originally posted by: CB328
You know, I posted a while back about how Republicans' pervasive fraud may be evidence that capitalism is failing.

Seriously, if congresspeople can't afford to live without stealing what chance do we have?


Yes because it couldn't have anything to do with the culture that has grown up around our politicians that they are untouchable or anything like that... must be capitalism is dead... long live something worse.

ETA: if indicted charge and if convicted punish, nothing will improve till we start holding people accountable.
edit on 21-8-2018 by Irishhaf because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:45 PM
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originally posted by: CB328
You know, I posted a while back about how Republicans' pervasive fraud may be evidence that capitalism is failing.

Seriously, if congresspeople can't afford to live without stealing what chance do we have?


People in government are corrupt with money.

"It because capitalism failed! Lets switch to socialism and give the congressmen people control of all of the money! That will solve the corruption!"



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:50 PM
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MAGA = Drain The Swamp = everyone connected with Trump



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:51 PM
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a reply to: Grambler

not really socialism, unless you are talking about state-socialism... but nice Straw man
edit on 21-8-2018 by XAnarchistX because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 06:58 PM
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a reply to: theantediluvian
That seems pretty bad. What were they thinking?
Plus some of the charges they did were pretty frivolous.

If I ever fly a pet rabbit anywhere, just shoot me then and there.



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 07:05 PM
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originally posted by: CB328
You know, I posted a while back about how Republicans' pervasive fraud may be evidence that capitalism is failing.

Seriously, if congresspeople can't afford to live without stealing what chance do we have?


I hope in your post a while back you accurately lumped in Democrats too


"Can't afford to live without stealing"... come again?? How is stealing money to go on a trip to Italy any sort of inability to live without stealing?

These people simply CHOOSE to steal to elevate their status and boost their lifestyle.



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 07:17 PM
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a reply to: CB328




You know, I posted a while back about how Republicans' pervasive fraud may be evidence that capitalism is failing.


Wrong then and wrong now.

www.kansascity.com...

www.dailywire.com...

www.cnn.com...

www.independent.co.uk...

To state the OBVIOUS.

Your side isn't any better.



posted on Aug, 21 2018 @ 07:18 PM
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it because capitalism failed! Lets switch to socialism


Agreed! Seriously, capitalism has infected our culture with it's complete amorality and total insatiability. There's never enough in capitalism which causes more, and more excesses. In socialism the goal is quality of life, so it's easier to achieve versus getting all the money in the world.




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